Pressure intensifies on Iraq’s Maliki amid crisis

Iraq's top Shiite cleric increases pressure on al-Maliki with call for broad government

June 21, 2014 12:00 AM

Ebrahim Noroozi / Associated Press

Iraqi women living in Iran join a demonstration Friday in Tehran against Sunni militants of the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,, or ISIS, and to support the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, shown in the posters.

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BAGHDAD — The most respected voice for Iraq’s Shiite majority on Friday joined calls for the country’s prime minister to form an inclusive government or step aside, a day after President Barack Obama challenged Nouri al-Maliki to create a leadership representative of all Iraqis.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s thinly veiled reproach was the most influential to place blame on the Shiite prime minister for the nation’s spiraling crisis.

The focus on the need to replace Mr. Maliki comes as Iraq faces its worst crisis since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011. Over the past two weeks, Iraq has lost a big chunk of the north to the al-Qaida-inspired Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, whose lightning offensive led to the capture of Mosul, the nation’s second-largest city.

The gravity of the crisis has forced the usually reclusive Ayatollah Sistani, who normally stays above the political fray, to wade into politics, and his comments, delivered through a representative, could ultimately seal Mr. Maliki’s fate.

Calling for a dialogue between the political coalitions that won seats in the April 30 parliamentary election, the ayatollah said it was imperative that they form “an effective government that enjoys broad national support, avoids past mistakes and opens new horizons toward a better future for all Iraqis.”

As he is deeply revered by Iraq’s majority Shiites, Ayatollah Sistani’s critical words

could force Mr. Maliki, who emerged from relative obscurity in 2006 to lead the country, to step down.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama stopped short of calling for Mr. Maliki to resign, but his carefully worded comments did all but that. “Only leaders that can govern with an inclusive agenda are going to be able to truly bring the Iraqi people together and help them through this crisis,” Mr. Obama declared at the White House.

The Iranian-born Ayatollah Sistani, believed to be 86, lives in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, where he rarely ventures out of his modest house on a narrow alley near the city’s Imam Ali shrine and does not give media interviews. His call to arms last week prompted thousands of Shiites to volunteer to fight against the Sunni militants, who now control a large swath of territory astride both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.

The extent of Ayatollah Sistani’s influence was manifested in the years following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, when he forced Washington to modify its blueprint for the country and agree to the election of a constituent assembly that drafted the nation’s constitution.

For the past two years, the ayatollah has shunned politicians of all sects, refusing to receive any of them to show his disillusionment with the way they run the country. But the danger posed by ISIS militants appears to have forced him to say more.

His call to arms has given the fight against the Sunni insurgents the feel of a religious war between Shiites and Sunnis. His office in Najaf dismissed that charge, with his representative, Ahmed al-Safi, saying Friday: “The call for volunteers targeted Iraqis from all groups and sects. … It did not have a sectarian basis and cannot be.”

Mr. Maliki’s State of Law bloc won the most seats in the April vote, but his hopes to retain his job are in doubt, with rivals challenging him from within the broader Shiite alliance. In order to govern, his bloc must first form a majority coalition in the new 328-seat legislature, which must meet by June 30.

Mr. Maliki’s Shiite-led government long has faced criticism of discriminating against Iraq’s Sunni and Kurdish populations. But it is his perceived marginalization of the once-dominant Sunnis that sparked violence reminiscent of Iraq’s darkest years of sectarian warfare in 2006 and 2007.

Shiite politicians familiar with the secretive efforts to remove al-Maliki said two names mentioned as replacements are former vice president Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite and French-educated economist, and Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite who served as Iraq’s first prime minister after Saddam Hussein’s ouster. Others include Ahmad Chalabi, a one-time Washington favorite to lead Iraq, and Bayan Jabr, another Shiite who served as finance and interior minister under al-Maliki.

Nearly three years after he heralded the end of the U.S. war in Iraq, Mr. Obama announced Thursday that he was deploying as many as 300 military advisers to help quell the insurgency. They join some 275 U.S. troops in and around Iraq to provide security and support for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and other American interests. But the U.S. president was adamant that U.S. troops would not be returning to combat.

Mr. Obama has held off approving the airstrikes sought by the Iraqi government, though he says he could still approve “targeted and precise” strikes if the situation required it, and if U.S. intelligence-gathering identified potential targets.

A Shiite politician close to Mr. Maliki said Mr. Obama did not offer enough to help Iraq at its hour of need. “His plan does not rise up to the level of Iraqi-U.S. relations. His message is clear: America is not ready to fight terrorism,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the subject‘‍s sensitivity.

Sunnis, predictably, had a different take. Mohammed al-Khalidi, a Sunni lawmaker who favors replacing Mr. Maliki’s government, said he thought “Obama’s statement was balanced and reasonable.” He added, however, “U.S. officials should be aware that the situation in Iraq needs an immediate remedy, because Iraq is heading to the unknown.”